Featured Articles from the La Canada Valley Sun

Dancing is her passion. Kelly Phelan has been taking dance instruction classes ? from ballet and tap to jazz, Broadway and lyrical ? for just about half of her 8-year-old life. The youth said there?s nothing she?d rather do than tap her toes and move her feet. But, there?s more to this week?s Valley Sun All-Star than rhythm, tempo and talent. The Palm Crest Elementary School third-grader also has a passion for people and making life a little brighter for those less fortunate. Kelly?

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A Funeral Mass has been set for 10:30 a.m. Saturday, July 21 at St. Bede the Venerable Church for Thomas Joseph Jeffers, Jr., who died July 5, 2007 of cardiac arrest. Born Dec. 8, 1929, Tom was baptized at Holy Redeemer Church in Montrose and was reared in La Cañada. Tom's grandparents, the Meyers family, came to Montrose in the very early 1900s and his mother and father settled in the area in 1923. The Meyers family as well as the Jeffers helped develop Montrose. Tom Jr. continued his interest in Montrose and with four other businessmen, Hugo Ebmeyer, Bob Cooke, Cliff Banks and Don Carpenter, Montrose grew.

The La Cañada Unified School District remains the second-highest achieving public unified school district in California, according to rankings released Thursday by the state Department of Education. LCUSD retained the No. 2 spot behind San Marino Unified despite a five-point drop in the local district's overall Academic Performance Index score, based largely on the results of state tests taken by students in the spring. LCUSD scored 947 out of a possible 1,000 - an “outstanding” number that shows continued strong performance throughout the district in every subject area, said Lindi Dreibelbis, LCUSD's chief director of assessment and research.

Author and syndicated radio talk show host Dennis Prager is one of the better conversationalists you'd ever meet, but he pulls no punches for political correctness' sake. "Ask me anything," he invites during an afternoon meal at Ichiban Japanese Restaurant in La Cañada Flintridge — a favorite dining spot of his since moving here in 2007— handling chopsticks almost as deftly as he articulates deeply conservative politics and confident moral beliefs, relishing food and idea alike.

He is 27 years old, stands fit and trim at 6'2'' and will return for a second tour of military duty in Iraq sometime this month. His name is Cpl. Michael T. Morton and he is a U.S. Marine. For me, the war in Iraq now has a face. I met Morton and members of his family last Saturday night during a surprise birthday party for his father, Marty Morton, who is director of Maintenance, Facilities and Operations for La Cañada Unified School District. The party in La Crescenta celebrated a dual purpose, as it was also a farewell send-off for Mike.

IRVINE - In its run to the CIF Southern Section Division III championship, the La Cañada High boys' water polo team encountered a fair share of slow starts only to come through in the end. But the finish to the Spartans' season and Saturday afternoon's final following a slow start at William Woollett Aquatics Center in Irvine was just as frustrating as it was disappointing. With its top scorer and coach both gone from the match, the Spartans saw a tight finale slip into a one-sided finish, as third-seeded Martin Luther King won its first-ever CIF-Southern Section title at the expense of La Cañada claiming its sixth when the Wolves used a five-goal fourth period to pull away with a 14-9 victory.

La Cañada Flintridge City Manager Mark Alexander is quick to point out that City Council members drive decision-making and he's quick to give his staff the credit for jobs well-done. But legacies - even quiet ones - aren't built to be ignored. In June the San Dimas native became the longest-serving city manager in La Cañada's history - the first to hold the city's top post for a solid decade, and that on top of 15 additional years working for the city. Alexander took his first administrative staff position here in 1988, when he was 23 years old, and worked his way up through a variety of posts under three previous city managers.

More than 60 years since his military service during World War II, First Lt. Frank Colella was finally given the awards he was due. In a ceremony held on Tuesday at his home in La Cañada, Colella was presented with the Distinguished Flying Cross and two Air Medals -- honors he should have been given in 1944. According to Colonel Scott Grundahl, who conducted the ceremony, the Distinguished Flying Cross is one of the highest honors an aviator can receive. The medal was authorized by the Air Corps Act in 1926 and recognizes heroism and extraordinary achievement in an aerial fight.

Dining With Duvall By Lynn Duvall Last month I enjoyed a meal in the Hoover High School cafeteria, catered by Acapulco. My table mates were strangers, though, like me, they were graduates of the high school. We'd gathered with nearly 100 other grads to work on plans for the upcoming 75th anniversary celebration on May 15. One gentleman talked effusively about the jazz ensemble at the school. His enthusiasm ran very high. Finally, when he stopped for a breath, I asked, "How do you know so much about them?"

Flintridge Prep has done so well in science fairs historically that Laura Kaufman wasn’t surprised when three Prep students took first place at the 61st annual Los Angeles County Science Fair, which was held at the Pasadena Convention Center April 14 -16. “We have really hard-working kids who come up with really creative projects,” said Kaufman, a Flintridge Prep teacher, adding this year has been “on par” with the school’s past performances....

Ten Years Ago The La Cañada Flintridge City Council awarded a $792,000 contract to Pima Construction to build a park on a former Caltrans lot on the south side of Foothill Boulevard near the Glendale (2) Freeway entrance. The transportation-themed park was designed by Ronnie Siegel of Swire Siegel Landscape Architects. Today it is known as Mayors' Discovery Park. Twenty Years Ago Jinny Dalbeck, then-president of the La Cañada PTA Council, was chosen on a unanimous vote by La Cañada school board members to complete the La Cañada Unified School District Governing Board term of Carole Siegler, who was moving out of the area.

T he La Cañada Thursday Club has a proud 56-year tradition of sponsoring young women from our community in the “Bal Blanc de Noel” presentation of Les Fleurettes Debutantes. This year, the Thursday Club will present 12 young women to society on Saturday evening at a black-tie gala to be held at the Omni Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. The Bal Blanc de Noel is the culminating event which celebrates their completion of a 16-month program of social and community service, as well as cultural education, personal development training and etiquette instruction.